


No False Promises

by aboredwriter



Category: Metal Fight Beyblade | Beyblade: Metal Fusion
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-04
Updated: 2019-08-04
Packaged: 2020-07-30 16:42:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20100346
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aboredwriter/pseuds/aboredwriter
Summary: Chao Xin doesn't show up to a team outing. Dashan is concerned.





	No False Promises

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Where do I even start here? I had an impulse to write about These Great Boys again because they're dynamic is so good and now here we are. As usual, revisions are welcome and I crave them.

It had started out simple: Team Wang Hu Zhong was going to spend time in town, just generally walking around. In Mei Mei's words, they'd 'figure pout what to do from there'. The plan had been set in stone for over a week by then. Had Chao Xin forgotten? How could he have forgotten? He'd been so excited to finally do _something _other than the daily training sessions that were so tedious for someone like him. Besides, forgetting about a day like this just wasn't _like _Chao Xin. Forgetting _anything _wasn't like Chao Xin--clueless as he acted, Dashan could tell by the rare moments of vulnerability that his friend had the memory of an elephant, picking up on every little detail of a situation. 

Moments of vulnerability like the moment he walked in on Chao Xin, after a half-hour of searching, sitting at the foot of his bed and sobbing.

Dashan had never seen Chao Xin cry--hell, he half-expected Chao Xin to be _incapable _of crying--but there he was, trying not to make any sound through the hand he kept clamped over his mouth as the violent sobs wracked his body. He didn't hear Dashan enter over the sound of his own heartbeat, slightly irregular and harsh in his chest. He was mumbling to himself--what he was saying, Dashan couldn't hear from the doorway. 

Dashan glided into the room, trying his best to make himself known and not startle Chao Xin, and perched himself on the footboard of the bed. 

"Chao Xin?" He said, quieter than anyone else had ever heard him. Now wasn't the time for his usual assertiveness.

Chao Xin paused, his breath shortened slightly by the sob that was blossoming in the back of his throat, and wiped the tears from his face. "Ever fuckin' heard of knocking?" He muttered. 

Dashan offered a soft half-smile. God, Chao Xin still had the mouth of a sailor, even at a time like this. It would've been comical, had he been able to get past the layers of concern. 

"Sorry," Dashan replied, "we were supposed to go out today, remember?"

"Yeah," Chao Xin said, rubbing his head now, "yeah...yeah, I remember, sorry. It slipped my mind."

"It's...fine, really. You obviously have something more important on your mind."

"It's nothing. Sorry I was late, but I'll be ready in a second, just let me grab Virgo in case of--"

"Do you want to talk about it?" 

That question brought on a thick, heavy silence. Did he _want _to? No. No, he didn't. He never _wanted _to _talk about it. _That was why he had never opened his mouth about his problems in years. Still, the idea of saying it, getting it out in the open...it was so tempting. But if he got started, he may never stop. He may cry in front of Dashan, and that was one of the last things he wanted to do. Right after setting himself on fire. Dashan had already been annoyed with him when he first joined Wang Hu Zhong, after all, making things worse would do nothing but make them both miserable. 

Fuck it, he decided. After all, he'd end up mad at himself later either way.

"I...don't know what to say."

"Anything, damnit. Say_ anything." _

Chao Xin chuckled. Thank God Dashan was the way he was--not a very touchy-feely person, not the type to give over-the-top lectures about what he _should _be doing and how he _should _deal with things and _why _things were happening. He never made false promises, which was the main reason Chao Xin had so much respect for him. He had heard it a million times from relatives--_I'm here if you need help. _They fucking weren't. They never were. They just wanted to make themselves feel better. Dashan, on the other hand, never claimed to be something he wasn't.

"It's...it's kind of ridiculous," Chao Xin said, huffing a little, "I was on the phone with my Mom. She really wants to see me but...my _sister."_

Dashan grimaced. Chao Xin's unbearable sister. Of course, she was still causing him problems. 

"She can't come out here. Not with the way she is now. She's too sick lately, so she's depending on my sister to take care of her and..." _Don't cry. Don't cry. Don't you dare start crying. _"My sister said that if my mom even considers visiting me, she'll stop taking care of Mom. She has nowhere else to go! Nobody else is going to take care of her! I ran away from home and now Mom is alone with that bitch and I just--"

"Okay, slow down, slow down," Dashan said, "slow down. _Breathe."_

Chao Xin took a long breath, shutting his eyes for a moment, before continuing. "I _left. _I left my own _mother _alone with my _nutcase of a sister _and now my sister might seriously hurt her and it'll be all my fault. I didn't mean for this to happen--I swear," fighting the tears was impossible now, he just let them spill over, "I didn't mean to."

He _knew _it wasn't his fault. He knew it. He fully understood, at least intellectually, that nothing about this was his fault, that he was in a tough situation and coming to Beylin Temple had been his best option, so why was the guilt eating away at him so _violently? _Why did it _hurt? _Why was he fighting to believe it?

"Chao Xin, you were _ten _when you ran. A ten-year-old kid running away from his--your words, not mine--_nutcase of a sister _for a better life in the city at the best bey school in the country isn't the perpetrator here. You're not the bad guy."

"Well, when you put it like that, it doesn't sound so bad."

"I know, that's _why _I put it like that."

"Either way, though, Mom has no one. If my sister abandons her...I can't care for her. I'm too young to even know how to _find _a place to live, let alone gather the money to _afford _one."

"I'll clear up a spare room at the school," Dashan said simply, "in exchange for _you _enjoying yourself for at least a few hours. C'mon, Chao Xin," he hesitantly put a hand on his friend's arm, then morphed that into a semi-awkward side-hug when he was sure Chao Xin was okay with the contact, "she wouldn't want you beating yourself up like this. It wasn't your fault and I know you won't believe it now, and I know it sucks right now to have that on your conscience, but let us--let _me _help. I can't say that I have answers, but I'm willing to try."

_No false promises from Dashan. _

"Thanks, I appreciate it," Chao Xin replied, voice raspy from crying so much and thick with genuine gratitude, followed by an uncommon waver in his voice, "thank you so much."

"Don't worry about it."

"Wait a sec--you can _do that?"_

"What?"

"You can just let my Mom live here?"

"Well, I can't make the decision, no, but what I _can _do is pull a few strings with the teachers. Being a teacher's pet comes in handy sometimes," he winked. 

"Ohhhhh, so you're not the angry ball of righteousness I thought you were in the beginning."

Dashan chuckled. "No, you're right, I'm not. And _you're _not the girl-crazed asshole I thought _you _were in the beginning."

"Oh no, I'm still a girl-crazed asshole."

"Yeah but just...a smaller one."

The sobs were replaced by echoing laughter from the two friends.

The issue wasn't, by any definition of the word, _solved, _but he found himself refilled with the hope he'd momentarily lost. And having a friend by his side didn't hurt the situation, either.


End file.
